New Path Youth and Family Services Annual Report 2010-11

 Leading and Inspiring Change:  For children and youth, for families and adults, within our communities, within the service system, in collaboration with partners.

                                              
This again has been a very active year with a number of significant activities for New Path Youth and Family Services. In Program Activities, New Path is pursuing a service design that ensures effectiveness through evidenced based programs, all framed in the eight values and principles developed in the previous year.  New Path has recently developed a set of Core Competencies that will guide staff recruitment and training to ensure an effective, competency based work force well into the future. New Path is now positioned to enhance social enterprise activities and initiate new and innovative approaches, through an Incubator Committee, to ensure future sustainability. Alignment with our strategic priorities is the premise that will provide a more disciplined, business approach to our work.

New Path serves all of Simcoe County through nine locations including Bradford, Cookstown, Alliston, Orillia, Collingwood, Midland, and three locations in Barrie.  Many of our offices are co-located with other child and youth serving organizations. The Intake department continues to experience again an increasingly high volume of inquiries and referrals.  The Intake staff ensure that all clients are offered consultation sessions as required and requested, while waiting for an opening in their identified program.

New Path participates in a number of assessment processes, in addition to goal rating, and client feedback through Quality Assurance.  This is to help determine both acceptance into service, as well as to determine functional improvement while participating in service.  Once again, all services and programs show significant improvements for clients and their families.

The majority of New Path programs have remained consistent this past year from previous years. We have experienced some re-alignment of resources due to fiscal constraint however we have been able to minimize impacts on clients. The after effects of the recession are still being felt and all staff are to be recognized for their efforts this past year to contain costs.  

New Path continues to support and participate fully in the Simcoe County Coalition of Children Youth and Family Services.  The Coalition is charged with the coordinated planning for child and youth services and currently has a membership of approximately forty agencies.  New Path currently has staff representation on many of its committees and task groups.  New Path also continues its strong relationship with Children’s Mental Health Ontario and actively participates at the regional level as well as the clinical and accreditation levels.

We would also like to acknowledge all of our funders including the Ministry of Children and Youth Services which includes Youth Justice, the Ministry of the Attorney General, New Path Foundation, and the many individuals and corporations who have donated their time and money.  We are especially pleased that the Central East Region of MCYS has shown leadership in implementing and supporting a number of corporate initiatives including the Residential Review Committee, and a new Regional Table for children’s mental health discussions.

Youth Engagement at New Path is now considered part of our ongoing work. We have an active group of youth and adult allies that are actively involved in a broad range of activities, including advocacy. We are most appreciative of the Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health, and the New Mentality project of Children’s Mental Health Ontario for their support to our youth engagement initiative. This current Annual General Meeting has been developed and run by our Youth, and is a direct result of the Youth Engagement philosophy that we have adopted.

The Board of Directors at New Path all serve as volunteers, to over see the agency’s governance.  Each member lives or works in Simcoe County, and cares deeply about Simcoe’s children, youth, and families. They have committed enormous amounts of time this past year in order to ensure that governance standards remain at the very highest level possible.  We are very pleased to have welcomed many new board members this past year thanks to a successful board recruitment strategy. The board has developed an Advocacy Committee to better coordinate community awareness of the mental health needs of kids and to encourage community members to “take a stand for children’s mental health” as we come up to election time in the Fall of 2011.

 We would also like to recognize all the staff.  They have endured significant demands and have ensured that client needs always come first. Our gratitude is also extended to all management staff who each has contributed enormous amounts of overtime in order to make sure that New Path staff got the support required to continue high quality services.

Finally, and most importantly, we would like to acknowledge and thank the many children and youth, and their families in our Children’s Services, as well as those in our Adult Services, for allowing us into their lives during very difficult and stressful times.

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New Path Foundation Annual Report 2010-11

 
Leading and Inspiring Change:  Develop and manage philanthropic investment and mobilize community support to meet the mental health needs of children, youth, and families.

 

This past year has continued to see growth for New Path Foundation with a number of significant activities.  New Path Foundation has a core set of values and principles, along with strategic priorities aimed at Program Activities, Stakeholder Engagement, Operational Capacity, and Financial Growth.  After careful consideration, the Board of Directors has established funding support to develop an Annual Campaign that will become the donor base for future initiatives such as planned giving. The Annual Campaign strategies have been researched carefully using consultants and a new, high impact case statement has been developed using expert testimony from clients. The Campaign was initially tested during the winter holiday season with current and past donors, and will be rolled out more fully in 2011-12 to include a number of strategic initiatives.

New Path’s Common Roof projects are the most ambitious work area with the Barrie site up and running for five years now and a new Common Roof in Orillia scheduled for occupancy in Summer 2011. This project has received some funding support from both the federal and provincial governments through the stimulus fund announced back in 2009. The Orillia Common Roof business model will be similar to the Barrie Common Roof although the look and feel of the facility will be based on the needs of the Orillia community agencies involved. There has been overwhelming support from the Orillia community and the City, and local fundraising efforts have been very successful.

Partner non-profit organizations of Common Roof projects will enjoy sustainability of their programs and services well into the future, especially important during these times of government fiscal restraint. The model developed by New Path Foundation has attracted the attention of many other communities and we have been honored to share our knowledge in various communities in Ontario, Newfoundland, and more recently in San Francisco and Los Angeles. A marketing plan is being developed to ensure increased capacity for continued consultation and seminar services.

The annual signature event, “Not Just Jazz”, was very successful again this past year, raising in excess of $25,000 to help children and youth.  The individual and corporate sponsors, and the Organizing Committee, really stepped up to make this event so enjoyable. A substantial grant was made to New Path Services to help fund staff training that will assist with efforts in moving towards an evidenced-informed range of clinical services.

In addition to various general grants, the Foundation now has four specified funds, the TwineBridge Fund, the Newby Youth Engagement Fund, the Hope Fund and the Coalition Fund that supports the Children Youth and Family Services Coalition of Simcoe County.  New Path Foundation believes strongly in integrated planning for children’s services and contributes by serving as the Trustee for the Simcoe County Coalition’s staffing and financial affairs.

We all get so caught up in the day to day work that it takes a year of reflection to fully appreciate all the accomplishments that the Foundation has been able to make this past year.  None of this could have happened without the leadership and guidance of the board of directors, and their generosity of time. None of this could happen without the commitment, expertise and passion of the  New Path Foundation directly employed staff: Neville Twine, Laurie Herd, Stacey Young, Diana Thompson and Roger Fridge.  None of this could happen without the skill, expertise and finesse of those leadership staff at New Path that volunteer their time.  Probably most importantly, the Foundation’s accomplishments could not have happened without the many stakeholders, individuals and businesses, who have made substantial donations this past year.  All of these people understand that the most important investment we can make is in the mental health of our children, youth, and families.